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The War Within Alpha - Warbands Feature Overview
Apparently we will have to wait a while before there is anything new about the World of Warcraft Movie. Deadline.com reports that Sam Raimi will direct the Wizard of Oz prequel for Disney.
Assuming that Sam Raimi is still the director for the World of Warcraft movie as previously announced by Blizzard, it looks like it will have to wait a little longer.
Cataclysm Screenshot of the Day - Steamwheedle Port
The screenshot of the day gallery has been updated with a screenshot of what's left of the Steamwheedle Port (Tanaris) in Cataclysm.
Blue posts
Originally Posted by Blizzard Entertainment
Reforging - Spirit will be a reforgeable stat
We don't want players changing Agi, Str, Stam or Int (or armor!) on items for probably obvious reasons, but converting Spirit to something else or something else into Spirit shouldn't be a problem. (Source)
Cataclysm Hard Modes
They will probably be unlocked very quickly, maybe after one clear, or maybe right from the beginning. We're still working those logistics out. We held the LK ones back partially because we shipped that patch late in the year and didn't want to ask players to raid their asses off over the holiday season. (Yeah, I know, more nanny state discussion ensues.) (Source)
Cataclysm Raid Gear Requirements
I would also expect a little more gearing up from 85 quests / heroics / crafted materials before jumping right into the raids this time around. (Source)
25-Player Raids not attractive anymore in Cataclysm?
If we wanted to remove 25-player raids, we'd just do that. We know a lot of players like them. Personally, I will probably keep raiding 25s. A lot of players like the 10s too though, and despite what fans of the 25s might think, offering lower item level loot in the 10s doesn't make them attractive enough. We're going to try instead offering more rewards (which includes loot) in the 25s, especially for the heroic modes. Many (though not all) of the players worried about the reward per effort of 25 raiding are concerned more with the heroic modes. (Source)
Running both 25 and 10-Player raids each week
This isn't speculation on our part. We have the data. As far as motivation, in some cases the 10 gear ends up being better than the 25 gear. Especially on 10 heroic, which a group of raiders in 25 level gear can often handle, the 10 gear is equivalent. There is also the issue of badges, which you can only maximize if you hit both versions every week.
We know there are a lot of players who want to run 10s who feel compelled to run 25s for the better loot. We know there are a lot of players who want to run 25s and feel like they still have to do 10s as well. We know both groups of players are getting frustrated and burning out -- not because they don't like raiding, but because they don't like raiding the same content twice a week, particularly when the 10 version tends to not even be challenging since their 25 participation ensures they overgear it.
One raid lockout with same item levels for 10 and 25 and a weekly cap on badge income solves all of those problems for us. It does creates two potential new problems. One, players may gravitate towards 10s because the logistics are easier. We intend to handle that by making 25s more efficient at earning gear. Two, players who really like to run both a 10 and 25 every week lose that opportunity. Sorry. If it's any consolation, because the bosses are divided among multiple raid zones you can still do some in a 10 and some in a 25 or have an alt that only does a couple of those zones a week without the full commitment of two complete boss kill cycles every week. (Source)
Guild talents "removal"
I think this is a common problem. Some players focused on "cut guild talents" without reading what we are doing instead.
Imagine you are a priest. Some of your spells are talents, such as Penance and Circle of Healing. If you take Circle of Healing, you don't have enough points to get Penance. Talent trees are about (sometimes tough) decisions. However, many of your other spells you get by leveling, such as Prayer of Mending and Mass Dispel. You don't have to make a hard choice to get those, but you do have to put some work in.
The guild bonuses used to be talents. They are now more like leveling spells. We call them perks now instead of talents. We haven't cut any content, but just changed the UI from boxes with prereqs to a list. (Source)
Cataclysm Features
I try not to make ranked lists of features between expansions, because it always feels like you're comparing apples to oranges ("Now with 14.2% more raid bosses!') and has a lot to do with how interested you are in any of those features ("Fishing has a new icon!"). I'll just say that Cataclysm is massive, feels really polished even at this early stage, and has a ton of content. It feels a lot like two expansions, because you have the 80-85 content as well as an all new 1-60 experience. We don't sing the praises of our quest design team enough. They have poured their souls into this expansion and you realize that from your very first quest. There are just so many "holy crap!" moments. (Source)
Warrior (Forums / 3.3.5 Talent Calculator)
Jumping charge and intercepts
We don't view avoiding a Charge in this way to be an acceptable use of skill. Note that I am talking very specifically about the OP's scenario, and not about whether warriors are punished more or less than other classes for internet latency. (Source)
We don't want players changing Agi, Str, Stam or Int (or armor!) on items for probably obvious reasons, but converting Spirit to something else or something else into Spirit shouldn't be a problem. (Source)
Cataclysm Hard Modes
They will probably be unlocked very quickly, maybe after one clear, or maybe right from the beginning. We're still working those logistics out. We held the LK ones back partially because we shipped that patch late in the year and didn't want to ask players to raid their asses off over the holiday season. (Yeah, I know, more nanny state discussion ensues.) (Source)
Cataclysm Raid Gear Requirements
I would also expect a little more gearing up from 85 quests / heroics / crafted materials before jumping right into the raids this time around. (Source)
25-Player Raids not attractive anymore in Cataclysm?
If we wanted to remove 25-player raids, we'd just do that. We know a lot of players like them. Personally, I will probably keep raiding 25s. A lot of players like the 10s too though, and despite what fans of the 25s might think, offering lower item level loot in the 10s doesn't make them attractive enough. We're going to try instead offering more rewards (which includes loot) in the 25s, especially for the heroic modes. Many (though not all) of the players worried about the reward per effort of 25 raiding are concerned more with the heroic modes. (Source)
Running both 25 and 10-Player raids each week
This isn't speculation on our part. We have the data. As far as motivation, in some cases the 10 gear ends up being better than the 25 gear. Especially on 10 heroic, which a group of raiders in 25 level gear can often handle, the 10 gear is equivalent. There is also the issue of badges, which you can only maximize if you hit both versions every week.
We know there are a lot of players who want to run 10s who feel compelled to run 25s for the better loot. We know there are a lot of players who want to run 25s and feel like they still have to do 10s as well. We know both groups of players are getting frustrated and burning out -- not because they don't like raiding, but because they don't like raiding the same content twice a week, particularly when the 10 version tends to not even be challenging since their 25 participation ensures they overgear it.
One raid lockout with same item levels for 10 and 25 and a weekly cap on badge income solves all of those problems for us. It does creates two potential new problems. One, players may gravitate towards 10s because the logistics are easier. We intend to handle that by making 25s more efficient at earning gear. Two, players who really like to run both a 10 and 25 every week lose that opportunity. Sorry. If it's any consolation, because the bosses are divided among multiple raid zones you can still do some in a 10 and some in a 25 or have an alt that only does a couple of those zones a week without the full commitment of two complete boss kill cycles every week. (Source)
Guild talents "removal"
I think this is a common problem. Some players focused on "cut guild talents" without reading what we are doing instead.
Imagine you are a priest. Some of your spells are talents, such as Penance and Circle of Healing. If you take Circle of Healing, you don't have enough points to get Penance. Talent trees are about (sometimes tough) decisions. However, many of your other spells you get by leveling, such as Prayer of Mending and Mass Dispel. You don't have to make a hard choice to get those, but you do have to put some work in.
The guild bonuses used to be talents. They are now more like leveling spells. We call them perks now instead of talents. We haven't cut any content, but just changed the UI from boxes with prereqs to a list. (Source)
Cataclysm Features
I try not to make ranked lists of features between expansions, because it always feels like you're comparing apples to oranges ("Now with 14.2% more raid bosses!') and has a lot to do with how interested you are in any of those features ("Fishing has a new icon!"). I'll just say that Cataclysm is massive, feels really polished even at this early stage, and has a ton of content. It feels a lot like two expansions, because you have the 80-85 content as well as an all new 1-60 experience. We don't sing the praises of our quest design team enough. They have poured their souls into this expansion and you realize that from your very first quest. There are just so many "holy crap!" moments. (Source)
Warrior (Forums / 3.3.5 Talent Calculator)Jumping charge and intercepts
We don't view avoiding a Charge in this way to be an acceptable use of skill. Note that I am talking very specifically about the OP's scenario, and not about whether warriors are punished more or less than other classes for internet latency. (Source)
Fan Arts
The Blizzard Fan Art Section has been updated with 3 new pieces of fan artwork.
World of Warcraft Fan Wallpaper
The World of Warcraft Fan Wallpapers section has been updated with the 3rd piece of the very impressive "The Stars' Fury" series of artworks from Jeremy Sun. He also has a pretty nice gallery on wow.duowan.com
I'm sure one of the elite photoshopper of the forum will create a nice compilation of the 3 wallpapers, and one of our extreme geek will post a nice picture of the wallpapers on a 3 monitors setup. (Do it, please.)
Update - A nice panorama of the 3 wallpapers is available in the forums.
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